Matilda Wrench

“ The thatch which had been secured by birch twigs linked together in the Highland fashion, and kept down by a great stone suspended from the twisted ends, and dangling in front, was half off. The elder bush that had grown beside the shed was gone, and its hollow branches no longer creaked in the wintry blast, for when labour was scarce, and peat was three times its usual price, any thing that would serve for firing was little likely to be spared. The interior of the cottage offered a sad and striking contrast to the scene of joy and plenty it had presented before. ”

“ Reader, you have read in books of fancy and fiction, scenes of imaginary faintings from imaginary sources of emotion and of suffering, and, perhaps, you have wept at them; and for such imaginary distresses, your tears were enough, nay, all too much. They will not suffice here. M’Kenzie had walked ten miles to his labour. He had honestly put forth all his strength to his appointed task, he had made a circuit of six miles to get the oatmeal for his children ere he set out on his homeward path. ”

“ The morning dawn showed Margaret [Pg 56] her other children stretched on their mattress as usual; but the grey cat, their constant companion had disappeared. Stiff and weary, the mother laid herself down by them and fell asleep; and the day was far advanced when she again opened her eyes on the scene of so much suffering. The fever had not attacked the others; and the boys who had had it, were recovering, though so weak that without nourishment as they were, it was plain they could not long survive. ”

“ The little stock of meal that the clansmen had brought with them on the day of M’Kenzie’s funeral, was now exhausted; the cow had ceased to yield any milk, and would have been killed for food, but none had strength to deal the fatal blow. The extremity of destitution had now come upon the bereaved family. The poor infant sought in vain for the nourishment that was no longer supplied, and cried and [Pg 49] mourned upon its mother’s knees. The two elder boys were down with the fever, but they struggled hard with it, their summons was not sounded yet. ”

“ The hope of procuring food had almost deserted her; the only dwelling within two miles, was a solitary cabin, whose tenants were little likely to be better provided than herself; and Margaret felt that she had now only to wait in patience, till He who hath the keys of death, should open the portals of the shadowy valley and lead them all through it, to the mansions prepared for them above. Her own strength was wonderful; it could [Pg 58] not be natural strength, for that had been drained by her infant, and by long abstinence and painful watching ”

“ But we must return to the cabin where the roof-tree had thus fallen in its prime, and where yet, through [Pg 43] faith and hope that is in Christ Jesus, the widow was enabled, amid the desolation of all things earthly, still to bear up, and amid her first tears, to thank God that her husband had departed in peace. The delirium had ceased about an hour before his death, and he had bade his Margaret remember that, though while spared to his family they had a right to look to him for support, yet he had been but the instrument, in God’s hands, for providing it ”

“ They were scarcely covered, for the one scanty, tattered garment which did not reach the knees, showed the deep poverty that had fallen on the parents. They were anxiously waiting for the hour when the little [Pg 24] portion of milk which the wretched half, no, not half-fed cow, still yielded, was to be divided among them. It was now three days since they had tasted any other nourishment, and M’Kenzie and his wife began to think it would be better to sell or kill their cow, than thus to see their little ones pining away beneath the united pangs of cold and hunger. ”

“ Yes, the plague [Pg 37] had begun! nature overtasked day by day, could hold out no longer; and though the spirit of the man had sustained his infirmities, his strength had failed at last. For some days he had been struggling with low fever, but he felt that he could struggle no more, and that the hand of death was upon him. ”

“ The morning worship over, M’Kenzie started on his long and toilsome walk. The embankment, which was the scene of labour, was full ten miles off, over moor and mountain, but he got there after two hours’ hard walking, and applied for employment. He was received, and at the end of the day was paid one shilling for his toil; and he went [Pg 28] further ere he turned towards his home, to spend his earnings in meal for his family. It was late ere he reached his cabin, his little ones had cried themselves to sleep. ”

“ We remonstrated. She shook her head, [Pg 17] saying, “God has gi’en us plenty, and he bids us use hospitality, and ye winna gainsay his bidding, so just gang in peace,” she added, laughing goodhumouredly, “for ye’re far frae ——, I guess, and ye’ll hae a long pull hame.”
It was indeed getting late, and the thought of four hours on the lake in the dark, had a hurrying tendency, so pointing to the Bible and hymn-book on the shelf above the children’s bed, we bade her remember us in their evening worship, and, slipping some silver into the children’s hands, we took our leave. ”

“ And do you ask how Margaret and her children were supported? She shall answer for herself. “We lived upon the promises of God’s Word, and when they seemed to tarry, we just read the fourth of Philippians, and so were enabled to wait, though they tarry, through Christ that strengtheneth us in the spirit.”
Oh, the blessings of a Bible education; if those who undervalue, or would substitute something else in its stead, could just contrast the peace of a Highland family, with [Pg 50] the despair of an Irish cabin, where the Scriptures are unknown, and the way of salvation is hidden from their eyes ”

“ Son to die for us;’ ‘and now shall he not with him also freely give us all things?’ And as he gives hunger and cold to us now, it’s because they’re best for us, for he could give food and firing just as easily. ”

“ Margaret urged him, but he would not be persuaded, and they closed the day with prayer and reading, and together joined in praising Him who had made good his promise of the morning, and supplied their need,—“I shall not want;” and as they lay down on their heather mattress with their little ones, all sense of want was gone, and filled [Pg 32] with the consciousness of their Heavenly Father’s presence with them, and of his love towards them, his everlasting love in Christ Jesus, they slept in peace! ”

“ Margaret soon rose and prepared the porridge, asking God’s blessing on that which He had given. They stood round and eat by turns, beginning at the youngest save one, who [Pg 33] was an infant at the mother’s breast. But when it came to M’Kenzie’s turn, he shook his head, and looked away. “Nae lassie, nae, I canna eat the children’s bread,” he exclaimed. But now the wife would not be refused; “And what is your strength but the children’s bread?” she replied, “ah, man! ye maun eat, or ye canna work ”

“ Such had been M’Kenzie’s end; and his widow as she thought of his freed spirit rejoicing before the Throne and with the Lamb, was comforted, and found peace in the expectation of the time when she and his little ones should also be summoned to that land where “they neither hunger nor thirst any more.”
That night she read the latter part of the seventh chapter of the Revelation with her children; and as she told how their father was now among this “great multitude,” little Moggie cried, and asked as she shivered with the cold, why [Pg 46] they might not go to him ”

“ Their hospitality they can no longer offer, their meal chest is empty, their cow has long been gone, and is it not the time for us to render back what we so freely received? But they have a higher claim. ”

“ And the children awoke at night, crying with cold; and one of them sobbed, and said,—“Collie is always warm. Oh! mither, [Pg 25] let me gang sleep wi’ Collie; for Robin and Moggie are like the frost to me.” The father spoke not! but he went to the shed and led in the poor miserable-looking cow, that staggered from weakness as it stepped over the stones at the door. ”

“ And oh, my dear bairns, doesna’ it soften your pangs to think that your Father in Heaven sends them?”
Moggie put her arm round her mother’s neck and nodded assent and tried to smile, but the shivering that had seized her was the beginning of the fever, and she too drooped and died. Margaret told her that the summons had now come for her, and she asked her if she would like to go to the Lord Jesus, the good shepherd who had said, “Suffer the little children to come to [Pg 48] me?” ”

“ In due time, however, the coffin was brought to the door, and there deposited; and of the few clansmen who attended to bear their kinsman to the grave, not one would enter the dwelling to assist in moving the remains of him to whom living or dying, under any other circumstances, they would have refused nothing. ”